Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Legal specialists yesterday questioned the accuracy of President Bush's sweeping contentions about the legality of his domestic spying program, particularly his assertion in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that ''previous presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have." But legal specialists said yesterday that wiretaps ordered by previous presidents were put in place before warrants were required for investigations involving national security. Since Congress passed the law requiring warrants in 1978, no president but Bush has defied it, specialists said. Bush's contention that past presidents did the same thing as he has done ''is either intentionally misleading or downright false," said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor. Only Bush has made the assertion that his wartime powers should supersede an act of Congress, Cole said. But Bush's comments in the State of the Union, which highlighted a week of election-style campaigning to defend the program, were almost entirely disputed yesterday by legal specialists across the ideological spectrum. For example, Bush strongly implied that if his program had been in place before the terrorist attacks, the government would have identified two of the hijackers who were placing international calls from inside the United States. But the 9/11 Commission found that the government had already grown suspicious about both of the hijackers in question before the attacks took place. Bureaucratic failures to share information about the hijackers, not ignorance of their existence, was the problem, the commission said. Moreover, Bush said in his address that ''appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed" about the program. But Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has said that under law Bush was required to brief all members of the intelligence committees -- not just their leaders, as he did. Bush's assertion that his program was legal prompted a group of 14 prominent law professors, including both liberals and conservatives, to pen a joint letter objecting to his arguments. An expanded version of their letter rebutting Bush's assertions will be released today, the professors said. Richard Epstein, a University of Chicago law professor and a member of the group, said he believes the Supreme Court would reject Bush's assertions that his wartime powers authorized him to override the law. ''I find every bit of this legal argument disingenuous," Epstein said. ''The president's position is essentially that [Congress] is not doing the right thing, so I'm going to act on my own."....

An intense debate erupted during the Ford administration over the president's powers to eavesdrop without warrants to gather foreign intelligence, according to newly disclosed government documents. George H.W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are cited in the documents. The roughly 200 pages of historic records obtained by The Associated Press reflect a remarkably similar dispute between the White House and Congress fully three decades before President Bush's acknowledgment he authorized wiretaps without warrants of some Americans in terrorism investigations. "We strongly believe it is unwise for the president to concede any lack of constitutional power to authorize electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes," wrote Robert Ingersoll, then-deputy secretary of state, in a 1976 memorandum to President Ford about the proposed bill on electronic surveillance. George H.W. Bush, then director of the CIA, wanted to ensure "no unnecessary diminution of collection of important foreign intelligence" under the proposal to require judges to approve terror wiretaps, according to a March 1976 memorandum he wrote to the Justice Department. Bush also complained that some major communications companies were unwilling to install government wiretaps without a judge's approval. Such a refusal "seriously affects the capabilities of the intelligence community," Bush wrote. In another document, Jack Marsh, a White House adviser, outlined options for Ford over the wiretap legislation. Marsh alerted Ford to objections by Bush as CIA director and by Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft over the scope of a provision to require judicial oversight of wiretaps. At the time, Rumsfeld was defense secretary, Kissinger was secretary of state and Scowcroft was the White House national security adviser....Senate intelligence chair endorses domestic spying

The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee on Friday endorsed President George W. Bush's domestic surveillance program and said the White House was right to inform only a handful of lawmakers about its existence. In a letter to the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas expressed "strong support" for a program that has raised an outcry from Democrats and some Republicans who believe Bush may have overstepped his authority. The panel is to hear testimony Monday from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the issue. Roberts said he believes Bush's use of warrantless surveillance is legal, necessary, reasonable and within the president's powers. "I am confident the president retains the constitutional authority to conduct 'warrantless' electronic surveillance," he said in the 19-page letter addressed to the judiciary panel's Republican chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and its senior Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont....How Do They Know Who Is a Terrorist?

Both law-enforcement and intelligence agencies fundamentally depend on informants. Informants in foreign intelligence are at best traitors to their respective countries. Informants in domestic crime issues are often paid, either in cash or in deals cut on crimes they have committed. Altogether, they are a sleazy lot. One point many people often don't understand is that CIA officers are not spies. They are "case officers." Their job is to recruit spies (informants) and funnel the information back to the analysts. Naturally, every country tries to depict its spies as noble people opposed to tyranny rather than people trapped and blackmailed, soreheads and neurotics or simply greedy opportunists. Often, informants working for money in domestic criminal cases will actually entrap some innocent person. That's how the sorry episode of Randy Weaver began, which ended with the deaths of his wife, his son and a deputy U.S. marshal in 1992. A paid informant badgered Weaver, who was hard up for money to feed his family, into illegally sawing off a shotgun, something any 8-year-old with a hacksaw and a vise can do. The idea was to arrest him, threaten him with a long prison sentence and then coerce him into becoming a federal informant. It was a federal cluster you-know-what from start to finish. This is a short preface to the current problem of domestic spying. The Bush administration says it only intercepts calls from terrorists. OK, how does the Bush administration know that somebody in Europe or the Middle East is a terrorist? Terrorists don't walk around the street with little name tags identifying them and their organization. They don't call people and say: "Hi, al-Qaeda calling. Can I interest you in a bomb-making kit?" The answer is an informant or some other country's intelligence agency. The first thing you know is that this person is a terrorist suspect. If anyone had proof that he was a real terrorist, he would be arrested. You can get some idea of how unreliable these suspect lists are by the instances of pop stars, U.S. senators, babies and other innocent people winding up on the U.S. terrorist watch list because of bureaucratic goof-ups....Taps found clues, not Al Qaeda, FBI chief says

The National Security Agency's secret domestic spying hasn't nabbed any Al Qaeda agents in the U.S. since the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress yesterday. Mueller told the Senate Intelligence Committee that his agents get "a number of leads from the NSA," but he made it clear Osama Bin Laden's henchmen weren't at the end of the trail. "I can say leads from that program have been valuable in identifying would-be terrorists in the United States, individuals who were providing material support to terrorists," Mueller testified. His assessment of the controversial NSA snooping appeared to undercut a key claim by President Bush. As recently as Wednesday, Bush defended bypassing courts in domestic spying by insisting that "one of the people making the call has to be Al Qaeda, suspected Al Qaeda and/or affiliate."....

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today acknowledged that the Pentagon conducts "counter-surveillance" of civilians in the United States to protect military personnel and bases. But he said the program was "no big deal", dismissing concerns that it has led to domestic spying on anti-war activists and protests by a Pentagon unit called the Counter-Intelligence Field Activity. Speaking at the National Press Club, Mr Rumsfeld said the surveillance was a "perfectly understandable thing" because the Defence Department was responsible for protecting US forces and bases in the United States. "Given the assignment to do that, they decided to establish a program whereby they would be able to observe and do the kind of counter-surveillance to see who was taking pictures of military installations and sensitive activities," he said. "To do that, you obviously end up scooping up information, whether it is names or films or whatever to protect your base, and that information then comes into the databank," he said....

In all likelihood in the mid-1990s the National Security Agency was listening to the communications traffic flowing through the Umm Haraz satellite ground station outside Khartoum, Sudan. The reason: Osama bin Laden then lived nearby. According to an expert on the history of US eavesdropping, the NSA had identified the phone numbers used by Mr. bin Laden and key associates. Intercepts yielded a trove of data about the financing and organization of the fledgling Al Qaeda. Fast forward to 2006. Bin Laden has decamped for parts unknown, and the NSA has no Umm Haraz equivalent. Al Qaeda's communications no longer follow a well-worn track that's easy to intercept. It's in this context that the current controversy over the NSA's domestic eavesdropping activities might be seen, say some experts. The nation's biggest and most secretive intelligence agency is struggling to tap an adversary for whom the very nature of communication has changed....

Federal prosecutors contended Wednesday that they want to know only the general location of a criminal suspect when they seek information about the whereabouts of the individual's cell telephone. The federal government is not seeking information so specific that it would breach a person's privacy rights, Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Littlefield told U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman in a hearing. "We're not invading somebody's house," Littlefield said. Federal authorities have asked Feldman to approve an order allowing them to get information about which cell tower an individual's telephone made contact with. They insistthat they do not have to show there is probable cause that the suspect committed a crime — a legal threshold necessary for a search warrant, for instance. Authorities didn't reveal the nature of the criminal probe at the hearing. In recent months, several federal magistrate judges across the country have refused to sign similar orders. Monitoring a person through a cell phone violates the constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches, they ruled....Air Security's Latest "F"

The latest bin Laden tape was a grim reminder that terrorists are still probing for our weaknesses. So last month's 9/11 Commission report giving airline passenger-screening an "F" is a kick to the gut. Why do our airports remain vulnerable? It's not lack of resources: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) earned that "F" despite spending nearly its entire $5.5 billion budget last year on passenger and baggage screening. Nor is screening the only problem area. Access to planes and the tarmac, either through the airport fence or by thousands of on-airport workers, remains a weak point. We still don't check most carry-on luggage for explosives. And the security measures we've added — baggage-inspection machines, more checkpoints — make for more crowds, a likely suicide-bombing target. Reason Foundation's year-long assessment of airport security concluded that these holes, and others, are due to three fundamental problems with TSA. First, TSA assumes all passengers are equally likely to be a threat. So all checked bags get the same costly screening; we all stand in the same endless lines, take off our shoes, etc. Second, TSA is grossly over-centralized and unable to handle the wide diversity of circumstances at 450 different airports. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, calls it a "Soviet-style, command-and-control approach" that "has been unable to match the changing requirements." Third, as both the provider of airport screening and its regulator, TSA has a built-in conflict of interest that allows it to grade and monitor its own performance. Here's the kind of thing that leads to: Shortly after it's creation, TSA paid a company to recruit new screeners; the taxpayers wound up spending $143,432 in recruitment costs for each screener — each screener — in the terrorism hotbed of Topeka, Kan. A bungling bureaucracy shouldn't police itself. We can, and must, do better....

Nez Perce Tribe opposes Idaho's plan to kill wolves to help elk An Indian tribe that's helped with gray wolf recovery efforts since their reintroduction to Idaho in 1995 says the state is moving too quickly with a plan to kill dozens of wolves to help restore elk herds on the border with Montana. Rebecca Miles, chairwoman of the Nez Perce in Lapwai, said tribal wolf managers aren't convinced studies of elk herds in the Clearwater River basin support a plan by state Department of Fish and Game to reduce wolf numbers in region to as few as 15, from about 60 animals now. According to the agency, wolves are responsible for about 35 percent of recorded elk cow deaths since 2002 in two hunting units in the region....Groups Present 'Green Budget' Recommendations to Congress, President Citing chronic underfunding of vital public health and environmental safeguards, fifteen environmental groups today called on President Bush and the Congress to invest critically-needed funds to ensure Americans have clean air and water, and to preserve our natural landscapes and the wildlife that depend on them. The groups released a budget blueprint outlining their priorities and recommendations for the federal government's FY07 budget. The blueprint, titled "A Green Budget for a Healthy America," addresses repeated funding cuts of almost $1.3 billion (adjusted for inflation) that have plagued many important initiatives in recent years. To view the document, go to saveourenvironment.org....Acres for the future When thinking of protecting wild places, one need only look to southern New Mexico to see large tracts of wild public lands that have the potential to be part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. From the Boot Heel to Otero Mesa and north to the Apache Kid and Magdalena Mountains, southern New Mexico has, in many ways, some of the wildest country left in the Rocky Mountain West. Yet, like so many other places, these wild lands face a myriad of threats. From oil and gas drilling to off-road vehicles and urban sprawl, the threats are real. And, in some cases, they're growing. These threats make wilderness designation essential. Despite the tough political climate for wilderness these days, there is a bipartisan wild-lands coalition of ranchers, hunters, developers, conservationists and local politicians working with the Bureau of Land Management, and staff members in the offices of New Mexico Senators Pete Domenici, the Albuquerque Republican, and Jeff Bingaman, the Silver City Democrat. The objective: to protect more than 300,000 acres of wild public lands in Doña Ana County....North Dakota boosts BLM oil, gas lease sale record Federal oil and gas lease sales in the Dakotas and Montana set a record in fiscal 2005, with parcels in western North Dakota's booming oil patch garnering the overwhelming bulk of interest, the Bureau of Land Management says. Oil and gas lease sales totaled slightly more than $36 million for the three-state region in the fiscal year, with North Dakota accounting for $35.1 million, the BLM said Thursday. Montana had $785,000 in leases, while South Dakota tallied $62,485. Most lease sales in the three-state region have occurred on U.S. Forest Service land in western North Dakota's Williston Basin, said Karen Johnson, who head's BLM's oil and gas leasing division in Billings, Mont....Property Rights Improve Environment, Book Says Re-Thinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy edited by Robert Higgs and Carl P. Close. The American public has shown significant concern for environmental quality since the first Earth Day in 1970, yet the maze of environmental laws and regulations enacted since then has fostered huge government bureaucracies better known for waste and failure than for innovation and success. In Re-Thinking Green, 22 economists and political scientists explain how environmental quality can be enhanced more effectively by relying less on government agencies, which are increasingly politicized and unaccountable, and more on environmental entrepreneurship and the strict enforcement of private property rights. The environmental bureaucracy has grown in size and scope because of a misguided belief that unless mankind reduces consumption of natural resources, cataclysmic environmental disasters will occur. "Sustainable development" is the fashionable but nebulous term associated with proposals to deal with the limiting of growth the environmentalists call for. It focuses primarily on limiting, if not eliminating, private land ownership. The authors of Re-Thinking Green brilliantly describe the fallacy in this type of thinking, and along the way they completely defrock unfounded concerns regarding population growth and the biggest environmental scam of them all: global warming....R-CALF USA, NCBA presidents debate cattle industry issues Trade policies, country-of-origin labeling and common ground topped issues discussed by presidents of the nation's two largest cattle and beef organizations during the Montana Winter Fair's farm forum debate, held last Thursday in Lewistown. R-CALF USA president Chuck Kiker, a Texas rancher, and NCBA president-elect Mike John, a Missouri cow-calf producer, went head to head answering questions and debating issues presented by some of the more than 500 farmers and ranchers attending the high caliber debate. Kiker and John addressed approximately 20 questions during the 70-minute debate. The recent setback in Japanese beef trade spurred a couple questions regarding the trade policies of R-CALF USA and NCBA....A poem on the range It's Deep West, this mining town of 16,000 residents by the foothills of the Ruby Mountains, and the cowboys have come to recite their verse at the 22nd annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. One of the best of the these poets — she has won the Will Rogers Award, which is the equivalent of an Oscar for cowboy poets — is Doris Daley, 50, who lives just outside of Calgary by the Bow River and comes from a four-generation ranching family. Don't ask somebody in the Toronto literary world who she is. They won't know. "They weep with emotion over their wordsmithing, to get something just right — and more power to them," Daley says of poets who publish in literary journals that nobody reads except fellow poets. "The strength of what all of us do, of our poetry, is that it's a living, breathing expression of a real way of life."....

Blogger.com was down for quite awhile tonight, so this is a shortened version of The Westerner.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Earlier this month, Reason's science correspondent Ronald Bailey squared off against Seed correspondent Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science, and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith for a debate on the unsavory entanglement of politics and science, sponsored by the Donald and Paula Smith Family Foundation. New York Times science reporter Nicholas Wade moderated.

Montana legislator disagrees with Wyoming A Montana legislator is taking exception to the opposition by Wyoming's congressional delegation to new standards for handling water from coal-bed methane drilling - standards backed by many state lawmakers. "Wyoming needs to understand that we have the right to have a clean and healthful environment and clean water," Rep. Norma Bixby, D-Lame Deer, said Tuesday. "We don't want to be like them. They're already destroying their water, and they're already destroying their land." Wyoming's congressional delegates sent a letter last week to the Montana Board of Environmental Review, arguing that the proposed regulations have no significant environmental benefit and would harm the methane industry in northeast Wyoming. The Northern Plains Resource Council, an agriculture and conservation group that proposed the rules, also criticized the letter from Wyoming's delegates. "We do not need a permission slip from Wyoming politicians to protect our own water," said Northern Plains Chairman Mark Fix, a Tongue River rancher....Ediltorial: Cattleman-conservationist alliance is needed If cattle ranching is to remain a way of life for anyone in the Intermountain West, then the destructive battle between grazing and environmental protection must give way to an alliance to fight the common enemy of both communities. A recent ruling by a federal administrative law judge giving the conservationists at the Grand Canyon Trust the right to buy, manage and, maybe, retire grazing allotments in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument should be seized as a means to such an end. Because, despite what has been argued by such misguided participants as the governments of Kane and Garfield counties, the real enemy of responsible ranching in the West is not the Grand Canyon Trust or any other environmental group. The enemies of sustainable ranching in the West are the agribusiness giants - Swift, Tyson and Excel - who have exploited their unchecked market power to turn a time-honored life-cycle lifestyle into a destructively efficient industry....Wolves may drop off endangered list The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will issue a proposal Thursday to remove gray wolves in the northern Rockies from the Endangered Species List, a decade after they returned to the region. However, a dispute over Wyoming's plan to manage its wolves once federal protection is removed may keep the proposal in limbo. Ed Bangs, head of the government's wolf recovery program, said Wednesday that the animals have recovered so well that the agency is no longer equipped to manage so many — about 1,000 gray wolves in parts of six states. Bangs said the proposal cannot go forward until Wyoming revises its plan for managing the 225 wolves in the state once protection is lifted. Wyoming's plan would allow unlimited killing of wolves in areas outside the northwest corner of the state. Bangs calls that "unregulated human persecution." Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said the state does not intend to change its plan. He said today's announcement is "political blackmail" to pressure the state. Plans in Idaho and Montana, where most of the other wolves live, are in place. Freudenthal said Bangs "is simplifying the issue quite a bit." He said federal officials refuse to take responsibility for managing wolves in Yellowstone once they are off the endangered list....Csonka Pleads Guilty To Filming On Federal Land Without Permits Former NFL star Larry Csonka, the host of a cable television outdoors show, pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegal filming on national forest lands. As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Csonka pleaded guilty to knowingly conducting work activity in a national forest without obtaining a special use permit. Csonka agreed to pay $3,887 in restitution for filming about 10 shows on U.S. Forest Service land, said assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Goeke. At sentencing April 19, Goeke said, prosecutors will request a sentence of probation for one year and a $5,000 fine. Csonka is host of "NAPA's North to Alaska," billed as a show on fishing, hunting, history and customs that explores a new area of Alaska each week. The show appears on the Outdoor Life Network....Does Post-Fire Logging Make Ecological or Economic Sense? It’s rare to find two diametrically opposed sides using the same exact posterchild to support their views. However, that’s essentially what’s developed over the past few years as the logging industry have locked horns with conservation groups and scientists in a battle over so-called “healthy forests” policy and the future of America’s public lands following wildfires. That “same exact posterchild” is the 2002 Biscuit Fire that burned nearly 500,000 acres in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area of southwestern Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest and the U.S. Forest Service’s subsequent Biscuit “Fire Recovery Project” that approved cutting down 19,000 acres of ancient forest reserves and roadless wildlands in a forest of global ecological significance....Wildlife Service Promotes Promoter of Fraudulent Science The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) last week announced that it had elevated an official long criticized for his attempts to remove Florida panthers from the Endangered Species List. The promotion came even as FWS admitted earlier this week that the panthers are being crowded out by development. Friday, the agency announced it was awarding James "Jay" Slack, the previous field supervisor for the FWS in Southern Florida, to the deputy director's post of a mid-Western regional office. Slack has worked for the FWS for fourteen years, eight of which he spent as the head of the Southern Florida office. During his tenure there, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and other environmental groups sought to derail his efforts to open more protected habitats to developers....Wildlife officials propose moving Florida panthers out of state Florida panthers should be moved to other locations in the Southeast in an effort to increase the population of the endangered cat, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report said. The report includes a recovery plan that presents ways to help panthers thrive as their southern Florida habitat becomes more limited because of urban sprawl, agricultural development and road building. The only breeding population is located in southern Florida, where roughly 80 panthers remain in the wild, the wildlife service said. "There is insufficient habitat in South Florida to sustain a viable panther population," states the report released Tuesday. "The prospects for population expansion into south-central Florida are questionable at this time."....New Report Details Environmental Damage From Illegal Immigration, Border Enforcement Activities In The American Southwest Some of the Southwest's most beautiful wildlife habitat and wilderness areas are suffering needless damage as increased border enforcement activities in urban areas drives illegal immigrant traffic into environmentally sensitive areas along the U.S. Mexico border, according to a report released today by Defenders of Wildlife. Compounding the problem is the accompanying Border Patrol enforcement activities, including road and wall construction, off-road vehicle patrols, and low-level helicopter flights. The report spells out several options for policy makers seeking to secure our borders while also protecting national parks, monuments, and wildlife refuges. The report focuses largely on the damage done to the Arizona borderlands, in particular Arizona's two largest wilderness areas: the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. These areas encompass more than one million acres of desert wilderness and are home to a stunning array of imperiled wildlife including the Sonoran pronghorn, jaguar, desert bighorn sheep, Gila monster, tropical kingbird, and desert tortoise....go here to view the report.Dark Elves: The FBI takes down the Earth Liberation Front Earlier this month, after a nine-year FBI investigation, federal prosecutors handed down a 65-count indictment against 11 people--including J.P., Seattle, and Dog--involving 16 acts of sabotage and arson. Arrests were made across the country. The indictments and arrests may have broken the back of the Earth Liberation Front--which the FBI has concluded is our most serious domestic terrorism threat. They estimate that the group's members have caused $100 million in damages since the mid-1990s. The indictments reveal the extreme enviro movement's hapless clumsiness, its paint-thin philosophy, and its dangerousness. THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT originated in Great Britain, where in the early 1990s several Earth First! activists decided their organization--with its lobbying and organizing and pamphleteering--was too passive. Direct action--their term for setting fires and tree spiking, which is also called monkey-wrenching--was needed. Judi Bari, an Earth First! leader, wrote, "It's time to leave the night work to the elves in the woods." A 1993 ELF communiqué declared solidarity with the Animal Liberation Front--known for freeing minks--and now acts jointly with the ALF. Earth Liberation Fronters call themselves elves. On October 28, 1996 the elves set fire to the U.S. Forest Service ranger station in Marion County, Oregon, their first act of arson in the United States. The Earth Liberation Front's philosophy is a mix of Marx, Unibomber, and Beavis and Butthead....Of Rocks, Creeks and Broom-Tailed Horses A plan was in place and, one day in 2003, the contractor from Utah who makes his living rounding up wild horses on public lands all over the West arrived with his team, his truck, his chopper and his portable corral and chute and set the trap. Up went the corridor through which the horses would make their last run, the channel that would lead them to a dead end, the metal fencing that would form the small pen into which thousands of mustangs had been chased before and thousands were going to follow. From outside the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the chopper took off and flew into the park, sweeping across the boulders and cholla and ocotillo until it spotted the horses, in Coyote Canyon, their home, a stunning and rugged riparian region cut by a rare and sparkling desert treasure — a stream. The chopper dropped altitude and slowed and began harrying the wild horses out of the canyon, up the ancient path used by Indians, Spanish explorers, cattlemen, wildlife, hikers, drivers of jeeps and ATVs. As the band neared the trap, the chopper peeled off and there came the dispatch of the contractor’s Judas horse — a sad name for the sad gig that was this animal’s lot in life — and it galloped before the oncoming band, leading it toward the trap, peeling off like the chopper just before the mustangs ran into the dead-end makeshift corral....Mexico Opens Market To U.S. Bone-In Beef Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns today announced that Mexico has resumed trade in U.S. bone-in beef from animals under 30 months of age. "Mexico’s decision to further open its market to U.S. beef is a testament to the safety of U.S. beef and a clear expression of confidence in the U.S. safeguards to prevent BSE," said Johanns. "As a NAFTA partner and our second largest export market, the normalization of beef trade with Mexico is great news for our farmers and ranchers. This action demonstrates Mexico’s commitment to trade based on internationally accepted scientific standards for human and animal health.".... Idaho rethinking traditional "spud break" With machines doing more of the potato-harvest work, some parents and educators want to rethink the tradition of the "spud break" — an annual vacation in early fall that lets kids help bring in the state's signature crop. But the half-dozen districts that still have the break want to hang on to it. "It's good for the kids," said Lon Harrington, chairman of a Snake River School Board committee that has been studying the matter for the past several months. Harrington, who picked potatoes himself as a child, said it also helps farmers. "At that time of year they need extra help," he said. "Even the large corporate farms don't have enough personnel to man the system."....

For the second time in two weeks, American law enforcement officers say men carrying high powered automatic weapons and who appeared to be Mexican soldiers violated the international boundary and crossed into the United States in Hudspeth County, East of El Paso. In the past the Mexican Consulate in El Paso had stated that their Government policy is that no armed Mexican soldiers are allowed closer than three miles to the U.S. border. The latest incident happened just before sunset on Tuesday night, as a KFOX crew was on the scene. As a Hudspeth County sheriff's deputy was describing what happened during a reported incursion last week - suddenly one 'soldier' emerged from the brush on the Mexican side of the border and darted back under cover. Moments later though, two other men who appeared to be soldiers marched across a clearing, in plan view. Shortly after that, the Deputy spotted soldiers who were well hidden and out of camera range crossing into the United States - attempting to flank the Deputy and the news crew. According to the Deputy "They are doing the classic thing, flanking around each side of us and actually coming up into the U.S. and trying to figure out what we are doing, they are looking at us very heavily."....

Border law enforcement officials and others were notified this week to appear before a U.S. House committee on Tuesday to give testimony regarding Mexican military incursions into the United States. Several members of the Committee on Homeland Security will be heading to El Paso, Texas, on Friday as part of a fact-finding mission to collect additional information. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations, is leading the group and will be in discussions throughout the day with local law enforcement officials in the area. "We are going down there to find out what happened," McCaul said Tuesday. "The reports I have received are very disturbing, and we cannot allow and cannot tolerate armed Mexican drug dealers to cross our borders and endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers and citizens. Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, whose law enforcement officers had an armed standoff with men dressed in Mexican military uniforms last week, said he is pleased congressional leaders are finally calling for an investigation. West said he has been told to appear before the investigations subcommittee meeting Tuesday. "There is no doubt in our minds that we confronted Mexican military personnel on the border," West said. "I'm not gratified that we had to back (the Congress) into a corner and carry video equipment instead of our guns to the operation." West, who was at the scene of the Jan. 23 standoff 50 miles east of El Paso, said deputies were in pursuit of three sport utility vehicles scrambling to get back over the Rio Grande into Mexico. West said deputies were in a chase with speeds reaching 110 miles per hour. Men who had Mexican military uniforms, vehicles and weapons were assisting those in civilian clothes, West added. "This isn't the first time we've encountered the military," he said....

Assaults against U.S. Border Patrol Agents in Arizona have been increasing once again. Shots fired at Agents patrolling remote smuggling corridors from Douglas, Nogales and the Tohono Odham Indian Nation is news rarely presented in the media. The frequency of “rock attacks” along Border city fences require a specially fortified patrol vehicle to protect the driver or passengers. A thick steel mesh braced with rods cover windows and headlights to repel “incoming stones” as well as improvised Molotov weapons. Gasoline saturated rags wrapped around rocks, ignited and tossed at agents is common. Through the years, many Agents have been severely injured by “Barrages of Stones” thrown or dropped” on vehicles. The lethal intent is obvious. Armed encounters with human or contraband traffickers, physical assaults, gunfire incidents were all reported to the F.B.I. In 2005 there were 778 major assaults directed against agents in Tucson Sector....

With a projected $1 billion budget surplus and a growing illegal immigration problem, Arizona should spend $100 million on programs to shore up its border with Mexico, Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano said. In a telephone interview with Reuters this week, Napolitano said her plan to spend more state funds on border control is necessary because U.S. Border Patrol efforts in California and Texas have steered illegal Mexican immigrants to her state. "There is no doubt that it has increased substantially in recent years," she said. "The Tucson sector of the Border Patrol makes more than a half-million apprehensions a year." The scale of illegal border crossings in Arizona has pushed crime rates up, strained local law enforcement and forced the state to intervene, Napolitano added. "The federal government is not engaged enough on the immigration issue," she said. "I can't wait for the federal government any longer."....

The House on Wednesday agreed to extend the USA Patriot Act for a month while conservative Republicans and the White House work out changes intended to protect people from government intrusion. The GOP-controlled House used a voice vote to keep the law in effect until March 10 so negotiators have more time to come up with a deal. The Senate was expected to follow before the law expires on Friday. Just before leaving for Christmas, Congress extended the law until Feb. 3. Senate Democrats and four libertarian-leaning Republicans had blocked a final vote on a measure negotiated by the White House that would have made permanent most expiring provisions. The Republicans were concerned about excessive police powers. Objections to the compromise last fall centered on the degree to which people and institutions that receive National Security Letters _ secret requests for phone, business and Internet records _ can appeal them in court. Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and John Sununu, R-N.H., say the law makes it nearly impossible to challenge such letters and their secretive demands for information. Craig told reporters this week that the White House had agreed to some changes that would address his concerns, but declined to describe the talks further....

Anthony Spears has been on Arizona's death row for nearly 13 years, convicted of the murder of his girlfriend near Phoenix. He isn't an international terrorist, has no links to al-Qaida and was in prison on 9-11. But tucked away in the pending renewal of the Patriot Act - the nation's controversial law to fight terrorism - is a provision inspired by Spears. Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona inserted little-noticed language that could make it harder for state death-row inmates to appeal their cases in federal court. The provision is one of a handful that neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate has voted on but which Republican lawmakers crafted during closed-door negotiations last year after Democrats had been excluded from the talks. Another obscure addition, never debated in Congress, would broaden existing laws that prohibit disturbances at any event - such as those involving the president - at which the Secret Service is providing protection. Civil libertarians say it could restrict free-speech rights in the name of security. The changes illustrate how closed-door negotiations over legislation can inspire lawmakers to slip substantive policy measures into bills with little public notice....

AT&T has been named a defendant in a class action lawsuit that claims the telecommunications company illegally cooperated with the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping program. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in San Francisco's federal district court, charges that AT&T has opened its telecommunications facilities up to the NSA and continues to "to assist the government in its secret surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans." The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the suit, says AT&T's alleged cooperation violates free speech and privacy rights found in the U.S. Constitution and also contravenes federal wiretapping law, which prohibits electronic surveillance "except as authorized by statute." Kevin Bankston, an EFF staff attorney, said he anticipates that the Bush administration will intervene in the case on behalf of AT&T. "We are definitely going to have a fight with the government and AT&T," he said. If the Bush administration does intervene, EFF could have a formidable hurdle to overcome: the so-called "state secrets" doctrine....

As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to hold hearings on the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of American citizens and residents, the question is not simply whether the administration is right that FISA's restrictions are inappropriate for wiretaps intended to "detect and prevent" terrorist attacks. The question is also how the issue should be resolved: by Congress after a public debate, or secretly and unilaterally by a president who says public debate is dangerous because "the enemy listens." The administration's main objection to FISA seems to be that its standard for approving wiretaps is too hard to meet in fast-moving investigations aimed at heading off terrorist attacks, despite its provision for retroactive approval of surveillance within 72 hours. Under FISA, the government must show "probable cause" to believe a target is an agent of a terrorist organization. Under the NSA's program of warrantless wiretaps, by contrast, the government need only have what Attorney General Alberto Gonzales calls "a reasonable basis to conclude that one party to the communication is a member of Al Qaeda, affiliated with Al Qaeda, or a member of an organization affiliated with Al Qaeda, or working in support of Al Qaeda." This approach not only requires less evidence; it also applies to individuals whose connections to terrorism may be indirect and tenuous, thereby increasing the chance of mistakenly monitoring innocent people. And what should we make of the fact that in 2002 the Bush administration declined to support legislation that would have changed the FISA standard for surveillance of non-U.S. persons from "probable cause" to "reasonable suspicion"? James A. Baker, the Justice Department's counsel for intelligence policy, told the Senate Intelligence Committee such a shift—which President Bush already had authorized for a broader class of targets all on his own—might be unnecessary and unconstitutional. Was that stance deliberate disinformation intended to trick Al Qaeda? Legitimate concerns about revealing intelligence methods should not become an excuse for misleading the public or for cutting Congress and the courts out of momentous decisions about how to balance security against terrorists with security against an unaccountable executive branch....

The Bush administration is rebuffing requests from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for its classified legal opinions on President Bush's domestic spying program, setting up a confrontation in advance of a hearing scheduled for next week, administration and Congressional officials said Wednesday. The Justice Department is balking at the request so far, administration officials said, arguing that the legal opinions would add little to the public debate because the administration has already laid out its legal defense at length in several public settings. But the legality of the program is known to have produced serious concerns within the Justice Department in 2004, at a time when one of the legal opinions was drafted. Democrats say they want to review the internal opinions to assess how legal thinking on the program evolved and whether lawyers in the department saw any concrete limits to the president's powers in fighting terrorism. With the committee scheduled to hold the first public hearing on the eavesdropping program on Monday, the Justice Department's stance could provoke another clash between Congress and the executive branch over access to classified internal documents....

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a 300 nautical mile (NM) temporary flight restriction (TFR) bordering the United States and Mexico, specifically above the states of New Mexico and Arizona. The TFR affects a 2,000 foot segment of the airspace for a range of 300 NM, between 12,000 and 14,000 foot, mean sea level (MSL). Furthermore, the TFR is only in effect from 5PM until 7AM daily. Simply stated, all aircraft are prohibited to fly between 12,000 and 14,000 feet in this specified area. Why? The 300 by 17 nautical mile air corridor is used by unmanned surveillance aircraft (UAV) to patrol from the skies. Now, many would suggest that this type of surveillance is important to patrol America's borders and secure its citizens from suspected terrorists. But without understanding the scope of the surveillance, no one can be certain which agency is using the information that is gathered and stored. This new program should be of concern to many Americans, as civil liberties may be violated in the process. Americans should demand from their lawmakers the scope of the program and whether or not Americans are subject to overhead surveillance. The 40,000 people living and working in Sierra Vista, Arizona, are probably unaware of the roving cameras the fly above them while they sunbathe in their backyards. The same goes for those that live in El Paso, Texas or the sleepy town of Deming, New Mexico....

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

NEWS ROUNDUP

Bill would give ranchers power to improve range Utah cattle and sheep ranchers are joining the quest to take more control over Utah lands, instead of leaving those decisions to federal authorities. Gov. Jon Hunstman vowed in his State of the State address to protect Utah’s pristine environment from those who would like to use the state as a hazardous-waste dumping ground. Now, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) wants to help ranchers protect valuable rangeland whether it is public or private. Ranchers depend on the state’s 11 million acres of grazing land, much of which is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or U.S. Forest Service. Leland Hogan, Stockton rancher and president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, said a bill is being introduced during this year’s legislative session that would re-create local grazing boards and a state grazing board to give cattle and sheep ranchers a voice in the process. “Before the session, members of the Wool Growers Association and Cattlemen’s Association talked about the need to provide more input into grazing issues. The Department of Agriculture and Food, which in the past has not focused much on grazing issues, is helping out. Rangeland improvements help society in several ways. It helps air quality, improves the watershed, provides for more efficient agriculture and improves society as a whole,” Hogan said. House Bill 145, introduced by Rep. Brad Johnson (R-Aurora), creates a state grazing advisory board, regional grazing boards, a Rangeland Improvement Fund, establishes fund sources and designates the Department of Agriculture and Food as the fund administrator....Western Water: A Legend of Overallocation I stood at an overlook above Lake Mead and marveled at the white of the bathtub ring, the area once under water now exposed to light by the extended drought the Southwest has experienced. A remarkable repository of rural California’s water, the man-made Lake Mead has precipitously decreased from 1,214 feet in elevation in 1999 to 1137.5 feet in December 2005. Even last winter's powerful weather only temporarily reversed the decline. Since early in 2005, when water levels rose after unusually heavy rainfalls, the lake has again dropped to nearly unprecedented levels. The resulting landscape is ominous. New islands, once submerged when the water was deeper, break the lake’s smooth surface. "Dangerous boating down there," my seatmate on a recent flight into Las Vegas wryly informed me with the faux panache of an experienced sea captain. But he had a point. Rock formations appear like icebergs, dark in the places where never submerged, pale white where the water once covered their exposed points. They stick up, far above the water level, like the submerged mountains hiding long-buried canyons they truly are. The change in vista is stunning, its implications – of a dry and desolate future ala Mad Max, a feral world of scarcity - a terrifying prospect. Another year of light snowmelt could spell the end of this technological stunt. These days, no look at Lake Mead makes a case to sustain the existing system....Time for balance in gas drilling debate In 1997, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that neither mineral rights owners nor surface rights owners held a property right that was dominant over the other. Balance, the court said, among owners of “split estates” — where the property rights below ground are owned by a different party from the land above — is the law of the land. Here’s the catch: The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state body that regulates oil and gas drilling, does not operate under this precedent set by the court. Its statute still favors the rights of mineral owners. It’s anything but balance, and the property rights of surface owners are not being protected. The COGCC receives its regulatory authority from the Colorado Legislature. So far, legislation to amend the Colorado Gas Conservation Act has not been passed to support the court’s 1997 ruling. Currently, mineral rights owners are free to drill and explore, then leave the homeowners, farmers, ranchers, businesses and local governments with the consequences of their actions — and likely decreased value of their property — without compensation....Wyo. delegation asks Montana to go easy on CBM water regs Escalating an interstate fight that has been brewing for years, the entire Wyoming congressional delegation sent a letter to the Montana Board of Environmental Review urging it to reject a petition that would toughen standards for water flowing into Montana. Sen. Craig Thomas, Sen. Mike Enzi and Rep. Barbara Cubin, all Republicans, jointly sent the letter late Friday, arguing that the new regulations would increase natural gas costs to the nation and harm Wyoming's coal-bed methane production. The letter also claimed that the new rules would provide no significant environmental benefit. "The petition, under the guise of environmental benefit, could severely limit CBNG (Coal Bed Natural Gas) production without any significant additional protection for water quality or existing water uses in Wyoming or Montana," they wrote. "The proposed rules lack scientific basis, pose a serious threat to energy supply, have questionable legal basis, and threaten ongoing cooperative efforts." The Montana Board of Environmental Review began a rule-making process on the matter last year after Montana irrigators petitioned it to consider rules that would toughen the water-quality standards for discharges of coalbed methane wastewater along waters that flow from Wyoming to Montana....Forest helps meet U.S. energy needs The White River National Forest has a relatively long history in natural gas leasing and associated exploration and development, and we are seeing an increase in activity that is unlike any level the forest has experienced before. The 1920 Mineral Leasing Act promotes development of oil and gas and other minerals on public lands. In addition, the 1970 Mining and Minerals Policy Act directs the federal government to encourage and administer orderly exploration and development of mineral and energy resources on public lands to meet the nations needs. The 2005 Energy Policy encourages, among other things, reduced dependence on foreign sources of energy and increased domestic production. The White River National Forest is committed to helping meet the energy needs of the country in an environmentally viable manner....Yellowstone closing capture facility, for now Authorities at Yellowstone National Park have closed, for now, the corral-like capture facility near the park's northern edge where nearly 700 wandering bison had been held this month. Park spokesman Al Nash said officials could reopen the Stephen's Creek site later, pending bison movement and the success of efforts to push wandering animals further into the park. Authorities began captures Jan. 11 and closed the facility late Friday, Nash said. This winter was the first since 2003-04 that the site was operated, the park said. Nash said the number of bison sent to slaughter so far this year appears to be the highest, and certainly the most since the winter of 1996-97. Nash said officials decided to ship bison to slaughter, instead of holding them longer-term, for fear of habituating the animals to people and feed....Court affirms Quincy Library Group timber sale Quincy Library Group Forester Frank Stewart gave the Lassen County Board of Supervisors the good news on Tuesday, Jan. 24. The board contributed to the QLG lawsuit fund. On Thursday, Jan. 22, the 9th Circuit Court affirmed a lower court decision finding environmental work on the project adequate. Short of taking the issue to the United States Supreme Court, environmental groups have exhausted their legal options in battling the group of four timber sales west of Quincy. The Meadow Valley Project is part of the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group program of work. It involves logging approximately 40 million board feet of timber on 6,440 acres in a 50,400-acre area over a five-year period....Walden to push salvage bill For Greg Walden, the 2002 Biscuit fire salvage project was the last straw. Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District representative figured it shouldn’t take the U.S. Forest Service three years to harvest trees burned by the fire in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. So last November, the Republican from Hood River and fellow U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., introduced the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act (HR 4200), aimed at giving federal-land managers the ability to complete a swift evaluation of the condition of burned federal forestlands, then make a decision and act on it. Noting that Congressman Baird is a Democrat as well as a former local Sierra Club president from his district, Walden said the bill has more than 140 Democrat and Republican co-sponsors. He is still tweaking the measure, including giving agencies such as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management more time in which to make a decision. The current bill gives the agencies 30 days following a wildfire or other disaster affecting more than 1,000 acres....Rare Florida panther needs more habitat to thrive If the endangered Florida panther is to survive over the next century, it will need a second and even third home outside the South Florida marshes and forests where development has caged it. But the secretive cat isn't going to find new haunts on its own -- it's going to have to be trapped and then trucked there by scientists. A transplanting effort is the critical, and potentially controversial, component of a new panther recovery plan released Tuesday by federal wildlife managers in charge of the cat's long-term recovery. The plan, issued in draft form for public comment, also stresses the importance of preserving panther habitat, particularly in sprawling Southwest Florida, where most of the estimated 87 or so breeding adults live, and of reducing the numbers of cats run down by cars and trucks....Army Corps keeps plan for spring rise on Missouri River The Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday it won't change plans to release extra water into the Missouri River this year, despite concerns the spring rise will put Missouri farms and the barge industry at risk. The agency's final operating plan for the river calls for release of two "spring pulses" of water from upstream reservoirs in March, and again in May, to help revive an endangered fish, the pallid sturgeon. But the releases will happen only if a lingering drought leaves enough water in the reservoir system. Current forecasts show enough storage capacity for the releases to occur, said Paul Johnston, a spokesman for the corps' northwestern division office in Omaha, Neb. The two-day pulses are supposed to mimic the historic rise of the river with the melting of mountain snow before dams were built. The increased water is intended to encourage the pallid sturgeon to spawn....Plea deal costly: Outfitter fined $60,000 in raptor case A rural Bowman outfitter was ordered to pay $60,000 in fines and restitution, the largest ever for wildlife-related crimes in North Dakota, for his role in a variety of wildlife violations. Warren W. Anderson, 61, also surrendered his hunting and outfitting privileges, forfeited five firearms and ammunition and was placed on two years probation Tuesday. He was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland after he and federal prosecutors reached a plea agreement. Anderson pleaded guilty to two violations, including one felony, of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, one violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act for killing five hawks and for violating the Lacey Act by helping hunters transport an over-limit of pheasants out of state. All of the violations were committed in 2004. The felony conviction means Anderson, who operated Stage Creek Hunting and Guide Service, may not possess firearms or ammunition for the rest of his life....Engineers study ways to cut wildlife traffic deaths Idaho Transportation Department officials want to protect motorists and wildlife from each other on a 2.1-mile stretch of U.S. 95 in northern Idaho near McArthur Lake. The Selkirk and Cabinet mountain ranges come to their closest meeting in the McArthur Lake area, about 18 miles north of Sandpoint, forming a wildlife corridor. At that point the highway curves as it descends into a creek valley, which can act as a frost pocket with black ice on the pavement. In one study 10 years ago, researchers counted about 40 moose, 40 elk and at least 300 deer killed annually near McArthur Lake in collisions with motorists or trains that travel on tracks next to the highway. Currently, more than 4,500 vehicles travel the two-lane stretch per day, along with 42 trains on the nearby tracks. One possible plan calls for the highway to be widened, straightened and elevated above a creek flowing from McArthur Lake, making it possible for wildlife to pass under the highway. Construction could begin in 2008, depending on decisions made after a series of public meetings. Similar projects to decrease motorist-wildlife collisions are planned in Washington’s Cascade Range along Interstate 90. A highway in Montana’s Flathead Valley is scheduled to have 50 wildlife passageways added....Alito Confirmation Puts Clean Water, Air Laws at Risk Sierra Club's opposition to Judge Alito's confirmation rested on his Constitutional philosophy, which threatens both the ability of Congress to pass laws to protect the environment, and the ability of citizens to enforce those laws. Judge Alito ruled (in Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) v. Magnesium Elektron) that the Constitution barred citizens from enforcing the Clean Water Act even against a company that admitted it had been violating the law for years. The Magnesium Elektron decision threatened to put a stop to most Clean Water Act enforcement. Fortunately, the Supreme Court effectively reversed this decision three years later in another case. In U.S. v. Rybar, Judge Alito dissented from a decision upholding Congress' power under the Commerce Clause to regulate the possession of machine guns Coming after six other federal appeals courts had upheld the same law, Judge Alito's reasoning is extremely troubling because it could translate into limits on Congress' authority to protect our water and air. These seemingly abstract Constitutional issues will have significant consequences in the short term. Now that he has been confirmed, Judge Alito will be ruling on two Clean Water Act cases now pending before the Supreme Court and deciding whether this same Constitutional provision, the Commerce Clause, gives Congress the authority to protect any of America's streams and wetlands (US v. Rapanos and US v. Carabell)....Suit Aims to Ease Confinement of Egg-Laying Hens In an ongoing campaign to unfetter the caged hen, the Humane Society of the United States plans to file a lawsuit in California today challenging a partial sales tax break for agricultural producers who purchase cages that animal welfare activists consider cruel and torturous. Humane Society officials contend in their suit, a draft of which was obtained by The Times, that the use of so-called "battery" cages to confine egg-laying hens to a floor area smaller than a sheet of 8 1/2 by 11-inch paper violates California's laws against animal cruelty. "It's time for the state to stop subsidizing it," said Humane Society attorney Jonathan Lovvorn, who was scheduled to file the suit in Superior Court in San Francisco. Caged hens are the latest in a line of factory farm animals to benefit from the growing movement to extend humane care to agricultural animals raised to be exploited or slaughtered....Ridin' and slidin' What's most scary? Spending eight seconds on a bucking bronc? Or sliding down a bobsled track head-first? It's a family debate. Billy Richards you may remember from appearances in Canadian Finals Rodeos, riding rough stock in saddle bronc - especially the one two years ago where he set the second-highest points total in history (87.5) despite riding on a broken leg. His wife, Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards, has made it to the Turin Olympics, going the head-first-down-a-bobsled-run in the event known as skeleton. It was enough of a debate in the family that Billy made a wager with his wife, who is one of the best stories in Canadian sports having just won the World Cup championship and finishing on the podium in all seven events this year. "The bet was that I'd have to ride a bucking bronc if he did a skeleton run. He did it in Calgary this summer. So now, I have to ride a bronc. I don't think I'll pay that bet off until after Vancouver 2010, though.''.... Something for everyone at Cowboy Poetry gathering in Elko With tales of glass eyes, "Quakie Braille," roosters, homegrown tomatoes and buckaroos, the 22nd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is under way in northeast Nevada. Locals and out-of-towners packed the Western Folklife Center for the Bards of the Great Basin show that began over the weekend and continues through Feb. 4. Cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell opened with a string of verses about being proud to be a cowboy and wondering how urban commuters "don't go mad" fighting morning traffic. Cowboys also commute to work, he said, but "we commune while we're commuting and, folks, what a difference that makes." Mitchell told several humorous stories, including one about a man who bet a bartender he could bite his left eye....

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

NEWS ROUNDUP

It's humans vs wildlife in booming American West Mary Smith used to consider it charming when she saw the occasional mule deer traipsing through this small Idaho town. That was before herds of the long-eared animals native to this remote mountain region began camping out in her yard, eating everything in sight. "They practically ring the doorbell,'' Smith said of the bucks, does and fawns that have laid waste to thousands of dollars of landscaping. Smith's experience is mirrored in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming where land that once served as wildlife habitat is being converted into housing and commercial developments. The phenomenon is nothing new in urban and suburban America, where high-rises, strip malls and subdivisions long ago sprawled across acreage that used to support wildlife. But in the wide-open spaces of the Northern Rockies, where the deer and the antelope still play, rising conflicts between residents and wildlife are causing fresh consternation....Bison industry on rise The irony of bison ranching isn't lost on Dave Carter. Recovering the once nearly extinct creatures has required raising them for slaughter. The proof is in the numbers, said Mr. Carter, executive director of the Colorado-based National Bison Association. About 35,000 bison were processed nationwide last year, up 17 percent from 2004. More than 250,000 bison roam ranches across the country. The massive, shaggy animals that once roared across the North American plains by the millions were decimated by widespread slaughter during westward growth, dropping to an estimated 1,000 or fewer by the late 1800s. Still, Mr. Carter concedes the industry likely will remain a bit player. Although the 35,000 bison processed last year was a healthy increase, "the beef industry does more than that before lunch," he said. About 125,000 cattle are processed every day, and the industry is measured in billions. Mr. Carter estimates that annual bison sales amount to $112 million.... MSU grad student studying how methane development affects fish Davis, a Montana State University graduate student, spent May through August collecting information to see how coalbed methane development affects fish. She and technician Ryan White sampled about 6,500 fish in 19 tributaries of the Tongue River, Powder River and Little Powder River. Davis plans to return this summer, possibly with two technicians, to the 54 sites she has already sampled and 15 new sites. All the streams are on private land. "The Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana is currently undergoing one of the world's largest coalbed natural gas developments with about 12,000 wells in place in 2003, 14,200 in 2005 and up to 70,000 projected over the next 20 to 30 years," Davis wrote in a project summary. "Because coalbed natural gas development involves production and disposal of large quantities of coalbed ground water that differs from surface waters, potential exists for substantial effects on aquatic ecosystems." High concentrations of dissolved solids, including sodium and bicarbonate ions, are typically found in water associated with coalbed methane, Davis said. Little is known about their effect on fish in the Powder River Basin, however....Industry: Change won't be dramatic with Jonah drilling Predicted changes to nearby towns from a plan to increase drilling in the Jonah natural gas field should not be as great as a federal environmental report suggests, an oil and gas company official said. The Bureau of Land Management, in its final environmental analysis of the impacts of planned production increases in Jonah Field, said people enjoying small-town life now in Pinedale, Big Piney and other communities would likely be troubled by the influx of new people and the growth if thousands of new wells are allowed. Randy Teeuwen, community relations adviser for EnCana Oil and Gas Inc., said increases in crime, school populations, traffic and noise already exist in communities around Jonah from the gas boom. Any additional changes caused by the booming development will be gradual, Teeuwen said. "Our drilling program is going to be such that there's not all of a sudden going to be a huge increase in activity that people are going to notice," he said. "More rigs and more drilling activity doesn't translate to exponential increases to people and activity. It will be gradual."....BLM underestimating Jonah Field's impact on air quality, some say Air quality will likely suffer more than federal officials are estimating in their plan for the Jonah natural gas field, some conservationists say. Bruce Pendery, public lands director with the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said the Bureau of Land Management's estimations of air emissions are overly rosy, as the agency assumes operators on the Jonah Field will use newer technology to reduce emissions. Namely, Tier II technology is cited as helpful in reducing air quality impacts around Jonah to 80 percent below original estimates -- a reduction pushed by the Environmental Protection Agency. "The provisions they are making are all tentative, conditional -- anything but binding or certain," Pendery said of the BLM. "They are trying to take credit for things that are at best a possibility. They say Tier II technology will be utilized when it is available, and it's not widely available now. I don't see how they can take credit for something like that."....Wolves spreading across Bitterroot Valley If you live or recreate in the Bitterroot, Liz Bradley could use your eyes and ears. The state wolf management specialist is charged with keeping track of 15 known wolf packs that roam in an area that runs from Ninemile down through the Bitterroot to Dillon and over to Deer Lodge. And that's not to mention all the new wolves that seem to be cropping up these days. Nearly half of the packs that Bradley tracks are found in or around the Bitterroot Valley. With its close proximity to the Idaho border, Bradley says the area will likely see other wolves dispersing through the area. “There are a lot of wolves in Idaho right now,” she said. “The density is something like 500 to 600 -- we're probably going to see new wolves showing up from Horse Prairie all the way to Superior and De Borgia. It's the same thing that we saw out of Yellowstone.”....Dead turtle halts dredging he killing of an endangered turtle during dredging for beach restoration temporarily stopped the $21 million project. The remains of a green turtle were found Wednesday in an intake screen of the dredging vessel Bayport, operated by the contractor doing the work, Manson Construction Company of Seattle. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency overseeing the permit for the project, halted the work until it can investigate the incident. "The Corps of Engineers sent a representative on Saturday to inspect the dredge and review the operation," Juan Florensa, director of public works for Longboat Key, said Monday. "Until we hear from the corps, we can't resume dredging." Barry Vorse, spokesman for the Jacksonville office of the Corps of Engineers, said early Monday there probably would be a decision made soon on when the Longboat Key contractor can restart the project....Working to Make Pelicans Well Again Kevin Lucey spent $500 to save a seabird he had never laid eyes on, and named him Phoenix for his ability to revive. The endangered California brown pelican had been found in November, dying on a beach. He had a cut that ran the length of his pouch, and he weighed 4 pounds — less than half his normal weight. At the International Bird Rescue Research Center in San Pedro, Phoenix has now had two of the three surgeries he will need to survive in the wild. But Lucey has seen the bird only once, when Phoenix was unconscious during his second operation. The center's pelican "adoptions" aim to restore birds to health and freedom — as untouched by humans as possible. Sponsors pay between $200 and $500 to make this possible, even though their adoptive role is largely ceremonial. The money goes toward the birds' care, especially the large quantities of fish they eat daily....Endangered black-footed ferrets reproduce in wild One of North America's most-endangered species has begun to reproduce in the wild in Colorado and other Western states after being reintroduced, state wildlife officials said Monday. Biologists and volunteers last fall found a female black-footed ferret in northwest Colorado that they deduced was born in the wild because it did not have embedded microchips, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife. The discovery was a stunning sign that a species once thought extinct is getting a footing on the path to recovery. Since the reintroduction program began in 2001, 186 black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced in the Wolf Creek Management Area, which covers 43,000 acres in Rio Blanco and Moffat counties northeast of Rangely....Fake fish funeral illustrates Delta water problems The other day a small group of environmentalists gathered near the California Capitol wearing black. The "funeral" honored the dying smelt of the Delta. Who knows how many camera crews, if any, documented the mourning. Yet the scene exemplifies the level of political discourse about the Delta these days. The estuary, one of the most important in the hemisphere for birds and the most important in California for millions of thirsty southlanders, is in horrible shape. The crisis is driving all sides in this debate farther apart when they need to be searching for common ground and solutions. To recap: Fish that live year-round in the Delta, such species as smelt and shad, are disappearing and possibly on a path to extinction. Meanwhile, the state Department of Water Resources is mulling a plan to increase Delta pumping. Those who pump from the Delta have been sticking to their demands that their pumping be absolved from any sanctions by the federal and state Endangered Species Acts. As for the water flow necessary to recover Delta fisheries, that has become "extra" water that must be purchased annually on the open market. Those who pump water from the Delta want somebody else to buy and find the water for the fish....Activists win fight on rights to grazing The Grand Canyon Trust is perfectly qualified to hold grazing rights in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, despite assertions to the contrary. An administrative law judge late last week upheld the Flagstaff, Ariz., environmental group's purchase of monument grazing permits and the process the Bureau of Land Management followed in awarding them - rejecting claims by Kane and Garfield counties and ranching groups that the transactions were illegal. The Grand Canyon Trust offered to relinquish its grazing permits if the BLM ordered them closed as part of its final land-use plan. But with other permit applicants lining up to get those permits, Hedden also told the agency the Grand Canyon Trust would purchase cattle and begin grazing them if the BLM declared the permits open. When that happened, the environmental group withdrew the relinquishment offer and purchased a minimal number of cattle to graze the permits. The counties challenged the Trust's ability to withdraw the relinquishment requests. They also argued that the conservation group had no standing as a buyer, both because it was not engaged in grazing and had no "intent to graze." And it challenged the BLM's ability to close grazing permits because of "conservation use." Heffernan struck down virtually all of the claims. The judge ruled that because the Trust never formally submitted relinquishment requests, it had the right "to retain its grazing privileges." Heffernan also wrote that there is no statutory language which imposes an "intent to graze test" on applicants or stipulates that they must be a grazing entity. And he upheld the agency's ability to close off "areas of environmental concern" under its multiple use mandate....Families want to work with Park Service to retain use of cabins Stuart Sivertson's grandfather began commercial fishing on Isle Royale in the 1890s. For decades, Severin Sivertsen hauled in tons of lake trout, whitefish and herring from the reefs surrounding the island, which became a national park in 1940. Commercial fishermen and their families once lived on the island, as did miners, summer vacationers and the cottage crowd. Primitive cabins and camps once dotted the shores. Today, the only permanent residents on the mostly wilderness island are moose and wolves. But the families of the island's settlers are hoping to forge a partnership with the National Park Service that would allow them to use the cabins their grandfathers built. ``We can help other people enjoy the island,'' said Sivertson, 65. He visits the island every summer, and enjoys working with the last active commercial fishery there. About 30 members of the Isle Royale Families and Friends Association gathered in Duluth this weekend to begin forging a partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to retain their place in history. They argue that families who built primitive cabins on the island before it became a national park are part of the island's cultural history and deserve to stay....Canyon overflights get open house -- again Two decades and multiple lawsuits after Congress ordered natural quiet restored to the Grand Canyon, the Park Service announced Wednesday it is seeking new suggestions for how to do it. Commercial pilots, tribes and environmentalists are hoping this time will be the charm in resolving a longstanding dispute about whether there is too much noise over the Grand Canyon and, if so, what to do about it. Air tour routes, flight schedules and other regulations that will ultimately determine the fortunes of those who make a living flying over the canyon are up for negotiation. A decision is expected in 2008. Previous negotiations have failed amid lawsuits and turf wars between the Park Service and Federal Aviation Administration.... Liberals' Energy Policy: Obstruct Supply, Marvel at Price High energy costs are a mystery. It seems like no matter how much we prohibit domestic energy production, energy prices just keep going up -- and we just keep getting more dependent on foreign sources. There is no law of economics that can explain it, no hypothetical relationship between supply and demand that could predict price. Bill O’Reilly must be right. High prices must be the result of a secret plot by big oil, or perhaps the freemasons. Well, that’s one explanation. Or we could consider a radical alternative: energy prices are high because Americans object to every possible source of energy known to mankind. Energy, it seems, is icky. Not so icky that we want to use less of it, mind you. But icky enough that we don’t want to make it ourselves. Instead, we fantasize about utopian energy sources of “the future,” and pay through the nose today for limited supplies of foreign energy that originate in the most backward, unstable, and faraway places imaginable. For example, there is oil off the coast of California, but we will not drill for it for fear of disrupting Barbra Streisand’s Feng Shui. We pretend that it is concern for the environment that stops the drilling, but does anyone really believe that it is more dangerous to transport oil for a few miles from an offshore rig to the coast than it is to transport oil from 10,000 miles away to the same coast?.... Military eyes more state airspace The Air Force has proposed creating a military operations area in the skies over eastern Nevada, sparking concern among local government and business leaders that airspace restrictions could pull the plug on two power plants and a wind farm. The plan to add a 2,400-square-mile training zone over White Pine and Elko counties would tighten the military's grasp of Nevada skies, where experts estimate as much as half the airspace is subject to government flight controls. Down below, some Nevada officials fear the new training area might jeopardize plans for coal-fired plants, a wind farm and a 250-mile transmission line that could unify the state's electricity grid while delivering a jolt to the region's sluggish economy. "The county would like to see that (military) proposal dropped," said White Pine economic development coordinator Karen Rajala. Ely Airport Manager Dan Callaghan pronounced the Air Force plan "devastating." Officials at Hill Air Force Base in Utah said commercial flights would be limited during F-16 fighter jet training missions. Exercises would be scheduled when pilots' usual practice site at the Utah Test and Training Range is being used for cruise missile tests, they said....New Deal Eases Fines for Farms That Pollute The Bush administration will exempt thousands of farms that raise poultry, cattle and hogs from heavy fines for fouling the air and water with animal excrement in exchange for data to help curb future pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency has signed agreements with 2,681 animal feeding operations in the egg, chicken, turkey, dairy and hog industries. They would be exempt from having to pay potential fines of up to $27,500 a day for violations either in the past or over the next four years. On Monday, the agency said its Environmental Appeals Board had approved the first 20 of those agreements, selecting accords it thought were representative of the whole. Ten are with swine-raising operations and 10 with operations that raise egg-laying birds. The board said it had determined that the agreements were consistent with the Clean Air Act. Agency officials said the approvals set the stage for the remaining agreements to gain approval quickly....New film shows Lewis and Clark's impact on Nez Perce A new documentary aims to show that the Lewis and Clark Expedition not only left a lasting footprint on America 200 years ago, but made a dramatic impression on the lives of the Nez Perce people in Idaho. The 28-minute documentary, "Surviving Lewis and Clark: the Nimiipuu Story," describes the Corps of Discovery from the perspective of native people who encountered the explorers as they headed for the Pacific. It recreates the first meeting betweent the visitors and the tribe, as well as the impact of the visit over the two centuries since then. Tribal members say it's not just another documentary about the trek by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their support staff. The $50,000 film was produced through a National Park Service grant matched by the college and the Nez Perce National Historic Trail....It's All Trew: Technology opens many doors During the last 100 years many things have changed our lives and the way we operate. One of the most drastic changes, especially among rural folks, came when four-legged horsepower changed to gasoline power. At first glance, farmers merely changed from horses to tractors and city people changed from buggies to automobiles. A deeper study shows the changes went much deeper and more drastic as normal occupations and trades became obsolete and no longer needed. To survive, lifelong tradesmen had to learn a different trade or change their often “handed-down” occupation. For example, livery stables, harness makers and farriers were no longer needed. Old-time horse traders and businesses selling wagons, wagon parts and horse-drawn machinery were suddenly left with obsolete inventory and disinterest by former customers. The changes came so suddenly many formerly successful business men went broke before realizing the changes were permanent....

Monday, January 30, 2006

Behind the war of words between Mexico and the United States concerning military incursions, the people who live and work along the border tell stories of helicopters, soldiers and dangerous encounters. A survey by the Daily Bulletin of border-area county and city law enforcement officers found a variety of experiences involving what some believe is activity by the Mexican military in the United States. On Monday, local law enforcement and Border Patrol agents had an armed standoff 50 miles east of El Paso with what they said they believed were Mexican soldiers. No shots were fired and the soldiers retreated back across the Rio Grande. Residents and lawmen along the border have reported similar stories for more than 10 years, said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez. Gonzalez, a member of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, a group of 16 departments along the border, said incidents similar to the standoff near Sierra Blanca are common. But, he said, some are worse than others. On March 3, 2005, a special task force investigating reports of Mexican soldiers crossing the border encountered what appeared to be a military incursion. "These individuals were wearing (battle dress uniforms), very clean-cut and in good physical condition," Gonzalez said. "They were walking in with backpacks and long-armed weapons inside our border." That night, 18 miles southeast of Laredo, Texas, the task force, which was made up of people from more than three law enforcement agencies, conducted a stakeout for what they said they believed were Mexican military. The group hid in the brush near an old gravel path called Caliche Road and waited, Gonzalez said. Later that night, one of Gonzalez's deputies spotted a group of five men in fatigues scouring the brush. Minutes later, more than 20 men followed them, dressed in military fatigues, wearing backpacks and armed with machine guns....

Members of a violent international gang working for drug cartels in Central and South America are planning coordinated attacks along the U.S. border with Mexico, according to a Department of Homeland Security document obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Detailed inside a Jan. 20 officer safety alert, the plot's ultimate goal is to "begin gaining control of areas, cities and regions within the U.S." The information comes from the interrogation of a captured member of Mara Savatrucha, or MS-13, a transnational criminal syndicate born from displaced El Salvadoran death squads from the 1980s. The MS-13 member, who claimed to have smuggled cocaine for the Gulf Cartel, explained a plan to amass MS-13 members in Mexican border towns such as Nuevo Laredo, Acuna, Ojinaga and Juarez. The Gulf Cartel runs its drug smuggling operations from Del Rio, Texas, to south of Matamoros, Mexico. "After enough members have been pre-positioned along the border, a coordinated attack using firearms was to commence against all law enforcement, to include Border Patrol," the alert states. Law enforcement officials along the border said they had not received the alert. Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County in Texas said he was angry about the alert because he has never received information from the Department of Homeland Security about this or any other threat along the Texas border....

Despite assurances from government officials that the border with Mexico is secure, a Department of Homeland Security document obtained by the Daily Bulletin reveals that law enforcement officials are seeking five Mexican nationals suspected of bringing explosives into the United States. The internal "Intelligence Alert" from the Office of Border Patrol -- issued to law enforcement officials Jan. 12 -- stated that the Mexican nationals were heading to San Francisco to sell the explosives. But Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the document is an internal memo and that there are doubts to the credibility of the threat. "The source stated that five individuals would attempt entry by foot with an unknown quantity of plastic explosives hidden in the soles of their shoes. The report indicated the group's final destination is San Francisco. Once in the city, they are to sell the explosives to an unknown Iraqi national," the memo stated. On Jan. 11, at about 5 p.m., Tucson, Ariz.-sector headquarters received information from a "source of unknown reliability" that the five individuals would travel from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, en route to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, according to the document....

The Border Patrol has arrested a Mexican immigration official caught traveling in the U-S with a group of undocumented migrants. Authorities say the 43-year-old man could be charged with human smuggling. Immigration agent Francisco Javier Gutierrez was stopped yesterday at a checkpoint near Alamogordo, New Mexico, about 80 miles north of the Mexican border. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier says Gutierrez was traveling with three Mexican citizens who are believed to have sneaked into the U-S. All four detainees are held by the Border Patrol in El Paso pending charges. The Mexican government has promised to cooperate in the investigation of Gutierrez....

An illegal immigrant pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to smuggle people into the United States while working as a Border Patrol agent, the U.S. Attorney's office said. Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, admitted to conspiring to smuggle at least 100 people when assigned to the Border Patrol's El Cajon station, east of San Diego. He also pleaded guilty to making a false claim to U.S. citizenship. Ortiz applied for the Border Patrol job in 2001 with a fake birth certificate that said he was born in Chicago even though he is a Mexican citizen who was born in Tijuana, Mexico, according to the federal complaint. He resigned after his arrest in August. "Ortiz became a Border Patrol agent through fraud, and his conduct threatened the security of the community," said Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney in San Diego. According to prosecutors, Ortiz began smuggling people in his Border Patrol vehicle in 2004, picking up four or five people at a time in his area of patrol and driving them farther inside the United States....

Homeland Security Department officials said last week they are open to ideas from the private sector on improving the nation's border security, including outsourcing work currently done by government employees and using satellites to monitor remote regions. Hundreds of representatives from private companies crammed into an auditorium at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington Thursday for a presentation on the department's multibillion-dollar Secure Border Initiative. "This is an unusual invitation," Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson told the crowd. "We're asking you to come back and tell us how to do our business." The initiative will replace and expand upon previous efforts that failed to materialize, namely the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System and America's Shield Initiative. The difference this time is that DHS plans to develop a comprehensive border security approach that integrates surveillance technology, physical infrastructure, personnel and processes, department officials said....

An Ohio sheriff has billed the Department of Homeland Security $125,000 for the cost of jailing illegal aliens arrested on criminal charges in his county, saying he's angry that the federal government has failed in its responsibility to keep them out of the United States. Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones yesterday said that although the government may not be legally obligated to pay the three bills he has sent since November, he intends to send similar ones every month until the federal government gains control of the border. He said 900 foreign-born inmates have been booked into the crowded Butler County jail in the past year. "Why should Butler County taxpayers have to pay for jail costs associated with people we don't believe should ever have been in this country, let alone this state or county, to begin with?" Sheriff Jones said. "They are in my jail because they have committed crimes here. "It's time the federal government should at least pay for the criminals they let stay here," he said. "If they don't want to pay for them, then they can deport them."....

The National Security Agency is in the process of building a new warning hub and data warehouse in the Denver area, realigning much of its workforce from Ft. Meade, Maryland to Colorado. The Denver Post reported last week that NSA was moving some of its operations to the Denver suburb of Aurora. On the surface, the NSA move seems to be a management and cost cutting measure, part of a post-9/11 decentralization. "This strategy better aligns support to national decision makers and combatant commanders," an NSA spokesman told the Denver paper. In truth, NSA is aligning its growing domestic eavesdropping operations -- what the administration calls "terrorist warning" in its current PR campaign -- with military homeland defense organizations, as well as the CIA's new domestic operations Colorado. Translation: Hey Congress, Colorado is now the American epicenter for national domestic spying. In May, Dana Priest reported here in The Washington Post that the CIA was planning to shift much of its domestic operations to Aurora, Colorado. The move of the CIA's National Resources Division was then described as being undertaken "for operational reasons." The Division is responsible for exploiting the knowledge of U.S. citizens and foreigners in the United States who might have unique information about foreign countries and terrorist activities. The functions extend from engaging Iraqi or Iranian Americans in covert operations to develop information and networks in their home countries to recruiting foreign students and visitors to be American spies. Aurora is already a reconnaissance satellite downlink and analytic center focusing on domestic warning. The NSA and CIA join U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) in Colorado. NORTHCOM is post 9/11 the U.S. military command responsible for homeland defense. The new NSA operation is located at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, at a facility commonly known as the Aerospace Data Facility. According to Government Executive Magazine -- thanks DP -- "NSA is building a massive data storage facility in Colorado, which will be able to hold the electronic equivalent of the Library of Congress every two days." This new NSA data warehouse is the hub of "data mining" and analysis development, allowing the eavesdropping agency to develop and make better use of the unbelievabytes of data it collects but does not exploit. Part of the move to Denver, Government Executive reported, was to expand NSA's base of contractors able to support its increasingly complex intelligence extraction mission....

An internationalist assault on the sovereignty of the United States and the privacy of U.S. citizens is currently awaiting action by the full Senate. The Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime is being aggressively pushed by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.), who reported the treaty out from his committee in early November. That should come as little surprise, in that Lugar has also been a leading proponent of the better-known Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), another key building-block in the structure of world government. Originally conceived as a tool to facilitate international cooperation in the pursuit of computer hackers and the like, the Cybercrime Treaty evolved during 15 years of negotiations to encompass any criminal offense that involves electronic evidence -- which in the 21st century is essentially limitless. As written, it could require more surveillance on Americans who have been accused of violating the laws of foreign countries -- even if they haven’t violated U.S. law. Treaty cheerleaders paint menacing pictures of hackers and child pornographers. But in reality the Convention is drafted so broadly that it encompasses virtually every area of law where the possibility exists of computerized evidence. That could affect thousands of innocent people, including not only political dissidents, but also the politically incorrect. Fortunately, one heroic, albeit currently anonymous, conservative senator has placed a “hold” on this Cybercrime Convention, a procedural maneuver that prevents an immediate, unannounced vote on the floor of the whole Senate. Conservatives concerned with sovereignty and the Bill of Rights need to both become aware and raise others’ awareness of the dangers posed by the Cybercrime Treaty, lest the Senate acquiesce in this subjugation of Americans to European-style “hate speech” laws through an electronic back door....